67% plan to increase benefits communication

More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents plan to increase communications in the coming 12 months to boost employee understanding and awareness of benefits.

Just under half (48%) increased communications for this reason in 2013, according to TheBenefits Research 2014, which surveyed 256 respondents in March 2014.

This indicates that some respondents have already begun to increase their benefits communications and are now looking to boost them further.

Implementing new benefits, renegotiating insurance-based benefits to achieve savings, and reviewing benefits providers to get a better or cheaper deal also feature high on employers’ action lists for 2014.

Looking back to TheBenefits Research 2013, when respondents were asked what actions they planned to take in the coming 12 months, these were also the top three items on their task lists, cited by 33%, 31% and 38%, respectively.

In 2014, a higher proportion of respondents said they had renegotiated insurance benefits (45%) or reviewed their benefits providers to get a better deal (44%).

Some tasks continue to rise up employers’ agendas. Over the past three years, the introduction of salary sacrifice arrangements for some benefits has seen steady growth, while the proportion of respondents revising performance-related bonuses has also continued to rise, following a fall in popularity in 2012.